- They look at society on a MACRO scale [this means that they look at society on a large scale]. They want to generalise their ideas to the whole of society. For example they look at what education does for society as a whole not just certain people in society.

- Functionalists also believe that society is based on CONSENSUS, this means agreement, i.e. we are all SOCIALISED [brought up] to agree on how to behave [known as NORMS] and what is right and wrong [known as VALUES].

- Functionalists believe that each part of society has a FUNCTION [a job to do] to make sure that society runs smoothly and everything stays in harmony. For example education has a function to make sure people are educated to be good at the job they will get after school.